Physical development of children with borderline reduced indicators of neonatal screening for primary immunodeficiency during the first year of life
Abstract
Studying the developmental characteristics of young children is important for solving problems aimed at maintaining their good health. In order to identify severe forms of congenital immune deficiency conditions in the framework of extended neonatal screening, a quantitative assessment of T-cell receptor excision circles (TREC) and kappa deletion-recombination excision circles (KREC) in dry blood spots is performed. Newborns in whom the quantitative values of TREC and KREC exceed the screening threshold (≥100 copies per 105 leukocytes), but are below the reference interval (460 copies for TREC and for KREC – 270 copies per 105cells),as a rule,remainoutside the area of attention of the pediatricservice.
Аim of the study: Investigate changes in the main indicators of physical development among children with borderline reduced indicators of neonatal immunological screening during the first year of life.
Materials and methods. Оutpatient records of 45 children whose results of TREC and KREC in extended neonatal screening were below the reference values, but exceeded the screening threshold for primary immunodeficiency (the main group), and of 90 children who had TREC and KREC results within the standard values (the control group) were analyzed. The assessment of body length and weight in children was carried out at birth, at 1 month, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.
Results. During the first year of life, the children of the main group showed an excess of body weight compared with the control group of their peers, which reached a statistically significant level by 12 months (p < 0.05). There was also a statistically significant superiority of growth indicators in children of the main group at all stages of the study (p < 0.05). The revealed trend towards an increase in weight-bearing indices in children of the main group was observed regardless of gender.
Conclusion. The dataobtainedindicatethatthere is a relationshipbetween the indicators of physicaldevelopment of children in thefirstyear of lifeandtheirimmunestatusatbirth,assessedaspart of neonatalscreeningbased on the determination of TRECandKRECindrybloodspots.
